FORWARD - THE TRAGEDY

The moment he engaged his Speed Mode, Takeshi Jin knew something was wrong. his Mech shook uncontrollably and warning lights flashed on his HUD. 'alignment out of sync' said one light, another flashed 'hydralics overpressurized' and still another told him one of his turbines was down. his fighting with Cunningham had done a real number on the machine.

"i've got i load of problems here Marco!" Takeshi's normal calm was long gone

"i see it too!" the technician was frantically typing on his keyboard, trying to remotely compensate, "switch back to combat mode! at least you'll still be in control!"

Takeshi flipped the switch, but nothing happened. "MARCO!" Takeshi began to panic as the final curve of the track came all to quickly into sight.

"EJECT!" the team's coach Andre yelled into the microphone "get out alive!"

it was too late at that point, the entire IGP world watched in horror as the Satomi Mech piloted by the sport's MVP 2-years running slammed into the wall at over 350 miles an hour, exploding as most of it went flipping off the track and onto the ground hundreds of feet below.

"TAKESHI!" liz screamed

"oh god no..." Ami gasped

thousands of other explications of horror and dismay rang all across Japan as the emergency crews hurried as quickly as possible to the scene.

"Liz..." takeshi's voice seemed to float from miles away into the headset of his teammate and girlfriend.

Every member of Team Satomi from pilots to owner was frantically trying to raise their friend on their radio. but to no avail, the damage to Takeshi's body was massive, even with all of the safety devices built into the Mechs. He had already passed out, and if the medics didn't arrive soon, he would die.